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Pay It Forward

This blog will be a bit more technical dealing with the early sellout of this year’s Boilermaker; not a great deal of my normal goofiness.
Last week the 5k sold out so the ‘escape hatch’ I had with discouraged 15k runners slammed shut. Needless to say both the Race Director’s and my e-mails have been flooded with pleas of just let one more person in (or sometimes ten more).
In recognition that there is so much pent up demand for the race we will be instituting for the first time a transfer policy so runners can legally obtain a chance to run the race.
The Boilermaker is not getting into the business of being e-harmony; the responsibility of the person who wants to get in is to find someone who wants to get out. There will also be a $10 registration fee to be paid by the in-coming runner. That’s really fair when you consider prior to the race cap we would charge $50 for late entries, now you’re on the hook for $47 ($37 entry& $10 registration fee).
So where do you find that elusive ‘not running the Boilermaker this year’ person? My first suggestion is social media. This year was a first for us besides being the biggest field; it was also the first time where we effectively had nearly 100% sign up on-line. I’ve already seen a number of hopeful people looking for those signed up but not planning to run on the Boilermaker facebook page.
We are holding back on activating the transfer until May 1st, why you ask, a few reasons:
Often the events of life give us surprises, both happy and sad, that may change your mind about running in July. If you think about it with the earlier registration where thousands had signed up by the end of January as opposed to a few hundred just a couple of years ago it’s a certainty things will have happened that will keep you on the sidelines on July 8th.
Secondly it may take the person who wants to run time to find the person who signed up but wouldn’t run.
So Tim you say, why did you call this pay it forward? There are roughly 4,400 new runners for the 15k and 1,800 for the 5k (that’s incredibly high for a 4,000 person race). If for whatever reason you know in your heart you simply aren’t going to run the race then bring a bit of joy to a person you may not even know.
Is this an added burden on runners who want to get in; yes. Will we end up with people who wanted to run but don’t get in: probably. Is this a better alternative to simply saying no to everyone who wants to participate; absolutely.
Keep the faith!